{"id":3057,"date":"2019-09-27T13:29:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T11:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/?p=3057"},"modified":"2024-04-08T13:48:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T11:48:39","slug":"vielfalt-macht-die-universitaet-stark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/2019\/09\/27\/vielfalt-macht-die-universitaet-stark\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDiversity Makes our University Strong\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"After two years of intensive work, our university\u2019s Diversity Strategy is finished. How diversity can be compatible with the idea of entrance exams, what concrete measures have now been planned, and just what good all this will do our institution are explained by Rector Ulrike Sych and Vice Rector Gerda M\u00fcller in the following interview.<\/b><\/p>\n

Art is regarded as being international, diverse, and open to the world. So why does a University of Music and Performing Arts even need a diversity strategy to begin with?<\/b><\/p>\n

Gerda M\u00fcller (GM):<\/b> There isn\u2019t just one art: we quite consciously speak of \u201cmusics\u201d and \u201ctraditions\u201d. And we train people in various fields\u2014like research, education, and instrumental studies, to mention just three. And in the instrumental studies programme, for instance, we work with multiple different instruments and repertoires. So in order to portray just what our artistic diversity stands for, we feel that there\u2019s a need for a diversity strategy.<\/p>\n

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Ulrike Sych \u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ulrike Sych (US):<\/b> I\u2019ll add to that by mentioning our students\u2019 and teachers\u2019 diverse cultural backgrounds along with the great heterogeneity of our study programmes. A music therapist, for example, comes from a vastly different place than does a concert pianist or an actor. And even so: all of them have a place at our university.<\/p>\n

Art can also be something elitist, something that can be used to assert one\u2019s distinction and superiority relative to other groups. Elite status, excellence, and diversity\u2014how do these actually go together for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

US:<\/b> Wonderfully\u2014it\u2019s the perfect mix! Our understanding of quality is quite broad. We\u2019re not satisfied with the people at our institution simply being excellent at what they do; people\u2019s overall attitudes are also important. This institution\u2019s commitment to upholding human rights and human dignity is non-negotiable, so those who find themselves unable to ascribe to this attitude won\u2019t feel very good here.<\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> We\u2019ve spent two years examining mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion at the mdw. Who comes here to study and who ends up not doing so? 70 percent of our students have at least one parent with a university-level education. By comparison: at the University of Vienna, it\u2019s just below 50 percent. So in order to broaden access, we\u2019re doing projects in schools with characteristics like high numbers of migrant students, and our music education students have provided refugees with music instruction. Additionally, we\u2019re trying to make a theme of diversity and inequality in the context of excellence and elite status in training our own students.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a rigorous selection process that one has to go through in order to be admitted to the mdw. How can we avoid having this bottleneck become a sort of \u201cstandardisation machine\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n

US:<\/b> A selection process is only ever a momentary snapshot, and even the addition of lots of supplementary criteria won\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, I see people from around 70 different nations studying with us\u2014and this cultural diversity makes our university strong. An example from the mdw\u2019s research disciplines would be the Department of Ethnomusicology, whose head Ursula Hemetek was chosen to receive the Wittgenstein Award. The ethnomusicological work being done there has brought forth a new area of minority research that focusses on marginalised groups and their musics.<\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> Still, we are indeed looking to reform the admissions process itself: for one thing, we\u2019re redoing the informational material to ensure that it\u2019s understandable, and we\u2019re also making it available in multiple languages. People should be able to find their way to us even if they haven\u2019t yet had any personal contact with the university. The admissions process should run according to criteria that are transparent and comprehensible to everyone. And we also want to offer checkboxes that can be used to request alternative exam methods.<\/p>\n

What kinds of methods are talking about, here?<\/b><\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> To give you just one example: we have blind people who are interested in studying with us. So the idea is that if a blind person registers for an entrance exam and clicks the corresponding checkbox, we\u2019ll know to make the appropriate preparations. Like providing forms of published music that can be read by the blind. And informing the commission beforehand. People who have trouble moving around on their own, on the other hand, may need help getting to the exam location. So in general, we\u2019re looking to set up processes that make it just as routine for people with neurological and physical limitations to take the entrance examination with us as it is for people without such limitations.<\/p>\n

This also requires some openness on the part of the examiners\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

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Gerda M\u00fcller \u00a9 Stephan Polzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GM:<\/b> It absolutely does\u2014which is why we also want to encourage our instructors to engage in some self-reflection: What goes on in an admissions setting? What do I need to pay attention to? Quite a while back, we did an internal study on the criteria used to evaluate performance in an artistic sense. The mdw-based sociologist Rosa Reitsamer and her team videoed recitals and discussed them with the instructors. The intention behind this was to help instructors better understand their own \u201cmindsets\u201d and to support them in critically questioning their ways of doing things.<\/p>\n

Diversity is also always associated with internationality\u2014so what role does internationality play in the mdw\u2019s strategy?<\/b><\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> It\u2019s always been a central factor in all of our considerations\u2014regardless of whether we\u2019re talking about curricula, admission, or assisting international students. Over 45 percent of our students come from abroad, and we want to provide them with even more support when they arrive in Vienna. Our idea here is a buddy system: we form tandems, with more advanced students accompanying their colleagues from abroad for the first seven months following their arrival in Vienna as they settle into everyday student life, look for apartments, and take care of the usual bureaucratic things. And it\u2019s also about getting to know the city\u2014things like where to go out and what clubs are good.<\/p>\n

What other measures are you planning?<\/b><\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> The themes of gender and diversity are to be anchored in all curricula. We\u2019ll also be putting together a set of guidelines on gender- and diversity-sensitive teaching. And as a fifth measure, we\u2019re looking to increase the share of women among the professors. For woman researchers, there will be mentoring and financial support for things like conferences and translation services. And we\u2019re talking with our woman artists about their careers while they\u2019re still students.<\/p>\n

What have you learned in the process of developing this strategy?<\/b><\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> I\u2019ve gained a new perspective on the mdw and gotten to know so many facets of this organisation\u2014which is absolutely priceless.<\/p>\n

It all sounds as if the entire university were working towards the same goal. Isn\u2019t there anyone who objects and says: \u201cWe don\u2019t need all this\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n

GM:<\/b> We definitely do have people who say that. Some of them have simply denied the existence of any discrimination at the mdw. But the results of our work have shown us that it\u2019s been worth the effort to analyse diversity from the perspective of an excellence-focussed organisation.<\/p>\n

When you turn your eyes to the future, what do you hope will be different at this university in five, ten years thanks to the Diversity Strategy?<\/b><\/p>\n

US:<\/b> Equal treatment and diversity have got to be such a matter of course that they no longer need to be explicitly discussed. I also hope that the mdw\u2019s example will encourage other places of artistic training to follow suit. And thinking beyond the University: diversity, transculturality, and equal treatment should be viewed as things that go without saying from a political standpoint and therefore be anchored in the programmes of all political parties.<\/p>\n